Hi Paul

Hope everything is well
I am preparing for a new tournament season and was just wondering what was your main focus when starting a new season? And how did you set your goals and expectations for the oncoming season?

Best regards

Thor Haugen

Hi Thor

Good to hear from you and well done for asking such a great question

One of the biggest abilities you will have to learn as you progress with your golf will be the ability to look at your own golf game and evaluate it.

So what I'm going to do is put the onus back on you as what you should be focusing on

But what I would do is, look at all aspects of your game,i.e fitness, strength, flexibility etc as well as your ability to hit all sorts of top quality golf shots by becoming more skillful. You should also evaluate your short game and try and develop more and more skill in this area. How's your mental strength?? Are there things to work on with that area of your game??

Once you've looked at all these points get a good team of helpers around you who can direct the time you spend in each area and help keep you motivated.

One story I can tell you, is about a good player I've been working with. He's a talented junior player who sometimes lets himself down by being immature either on the course or off it. He's even at times this year said he's been 'bored' of golf and not appreciated the time he's spent playing golf and travelling around Europe representing his national team.

Recently, through some 'help' from me he's taken on a part time job and even though it's not the 'best' of jobs he's recently had some golfing success, shooting 5 under around a tough track. Talking to him after the round about what was making the difference in his recent play, he said that his 'new job' had helped him because it had given him a routine, and a sense of far more enjoyment and appreciation for his golf.

I thought this was a hugely mature thing to say, and showed to me a massive move forward for this young man and in my opinion will result in better and better performances for him.

The moral of the story?? Sometimes focusing slightly less on your golf can help, especially when you start to appreciate things more and perhaps it will even help you focus better when you practise

Let me know your answers to the questions above.

Good golfing

Paul

Thanks for your reply.

In reply i just have to say that i can fully relate to the story you told, last season i got tired of the game and thought of it as boring and didn't really wanna play that much, but after discussing with my coach he told me the exact same, "care a little bit less" and it helped the last tournaments in the season i played some great rounds of golf and everything was working out better

About my mental game, i know this is something i need to focus on the next few months, in big tournaments like National championships and such, i play well the first round but when i know i am in a good position, my mental side lets me down , "and the bad shot appears" so that is something i really need to work on.

Im working alot with the core and it makes everything so much simpler because you just cant manipulate that club! makes my job as a golfer with other issues to be solved so much easier

My statistics also tells me that i have to work hard on my short game, maybe if i can get more confidence around the green i dont have to rely on producing great long game shots all the time, take the pressure of my long game


Best regards

Thor

Hi Thor

Good to hear that you could relate to the story of the other golfer

One of the biggest challenges for young golfers is one of maturity.

But what does that mean??

To me it means that so many juniors are dreaming of becoming a tour star and there is no question that a good golf game is a great start. So the questions I asked in the previous email which you've answered should help direct your practise for the coming months.

However the challenge of becoming more mature is where the differences are seen by me when I look at talented players who might become a tour player and ones that won't.

I ask myself questions when I look at these players like:

What are they prepared to give up to achieve their goals?

How do they behave on and off the golf course?

How much do they appreciate things?

How well do they deal with problems and look for solutions?

It may well be a very good idea for you Thor to get yourself away from golf for a few hours each week and do something different that challenges you to be uncomfortable!! This challenge could be a job, voluntary work or helping out at home. Whatever it is it would give you a challenge that if you succeeded might develop your 'mental strength' and make you more appreciative of your golf.

Imagine doing something you didn't want to do but after it you felt like you had at least stood up to the 'ordeal', imagine if you where in a situation on the golf course next summer where some bad luck came your way. It might be easy for many to feel sorry for themselves in that situation and let the bad luck become a reason for them playing poorly. But not you, having done 'stuff' you didn't like and come through the other side you look at the bad luck as something of a challenge and you've dealt with worse, a lot worse!!

Have a think about what I've said and let me know your thoughts, I'd be really interested and anyone else who reads this are welcome to join in also.

Good Golfing

Paul